Once I had the frame in place, they did a CAT scan so that they new where the part of the brain that they wanted to target was in relation to the head frame. After that I was off to the operating room. It was quite the experience. I had three neurosurgeons working on me. There was my neurosurgeon, Dr. Nir Lipsman, his resident Dr. Benjamin Davidson and also a third neurosurgeon, Dr. Clement Hamani.
Before the surgery I was really scared about them drilling into my head and inserting the electrodes. However, the surgery wasn't too bad. They kept me lightly sedated so that I wasn't too anxious and the drilling wasn't nearly as bad as I thought that it would be. To be honest, I can barely even remember it now. The worst part of the surgery was that when they made the initial incision, they had not given me enough freezing, so I could feel them cutting into me. This was quite painful. Otherwise, the surgery went well.
During the surgery, after inserting the electrodes into my brain, they connected the electrodes to a battery and had me tell them if I noticed any differences. Some people notice an improvement in their mood immediately. Unfortunately, I did not notice anything. I asked them if that is something that I should be concerned about, but they said that it wasn't. Not everyone notices an immediate change and it can take months or possibly even years for any improvement to occur.
After the surgery, I was very tender at all of the incision points, on my head and on my chest where they inserted the battery pack. My mouth was also very dry and my throat hurt. The anesthesiologist told me that this might happen because they put me to sleep while they inserted the battery pack and also intubated me. This made sleeping that first night very difficult. No matter which way I lay on the bed, I was in pain and the dry mouth and throat made me very uncomfortable. The nurse gave me some medication for the pain and some ice water for my mouth, but that didn't help. I barely slept that first night.
The day after my surgery, the resident, Dr. Davidson, brought me down for an MRI. As I mentioned in my last blog post, they did a 3 Tesla MRI instead of the usual 1.5 Tesla MRI. When I was getting ready for the MRI, the technician asked me if I had any new metal in my body since my last MRI. I mentioned that I had staples in my head that they used to suture the incision. She said that they had done a 3 Tesla MRI on one other patient who had just had a DBS surgery and he didn't have any problems, so I should be okay. I would have felt better if they had more of a track record, but I went ahead with it anyway.
As with my last MRI I was given a series of tasks to perform while they were doing the MRI scan. They did this twice, once with the DBS device turned on and once with it turned off. I did not know when it was turned on or off. They did this to compare my brain functioning with the device turned on and off. Afterwards the device was turned off and I will not have it turned on again until I go back in two weeks time.
After the MRI, Dr. Davidson said that everything looked good. I did not have any brain bleeds or any strokes. Thus, he was willing to let me go home a day earlier than I was expecting. I was very glad about this as I could hopefully get a better night's sleep. My pain was subsiding and my throat was getting better, so I went home on Thursday instead of Friday.
One of the most annoying things about the recovery from the surgery is that my eyes are all swollen up. This is something that happens because when they screw the head frame into your head it affects the muscles that go down around your eyes. The muscles become irritated and make your eyes swell. This should get better in a few days. I had the same thing happen when I had my MRgFUS surgery.
Well, that pretty much describes my DBS surgery experience. It has been good writing this blog about my two brain surgeries for depression. However, now that I have finished the second surgery, I don't think that I will continue to write the blog anymore. If I do get better, I will post telling about that, but otherwise I think that it has come time to discontinue the blog. Thanks for reading it.
How exactly did you get this surgery? I have severe depression and am trying to figure out if this is something I could have done.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear that you are currently suffering with depression. I hope that you are able to find something that helps you. It is a long road, but it is worth it once you are finally able to find some relief.
DeleteIn your comment you didn't say where you are located. If you are in the Toronto area you can get referred to the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation at Sunnybrook Hospital. The referral form is at https://sunnybrook.ca/uploads/1/_research/centres/harquail/referral-forms/harquail-neuromodulation-psychiatric-consultation-referral-200811.pdf. If you are somewhere else, then it would require some research on your part to see if there is anyone doing a DBS trial in your area and how to get referred to them. A psychiatrist with experience in the area might be a good place to start to ask questions. My psychiatrist referred me for rTMS (Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) and when that didn't work, they referred me to Sunnybrook for DBS. Wherever you get referred for DBS you will probably have to have tried ECT and rTMS first as they are much less invasive and have a good chance of working.
I hope that you are able to find someone who is able to do this in your area. I wish that I could have been more help.
You were plenty of help. Thank you.
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